Hirota, Kanehara Seize Sengoku Straps

SAITAMA, Japan -- Another turbulent evening came and went in
Japanese mixed martial arts, as Sengoku’s “Ninth Battle” brought a
myriad of surprises to the Sunday crowd at the Saitama Super
Arena.

The surprises culminated when the lightweight championship changed
hands in the main event, as Mizuto
Hirota brutalized defending titleholder Satoru
Kitaoka in the fourth round and took a technical knockout for
the victory.

Kitaoka evaded Hirota’s big punches early and took the Cage Force
champion to the canvas, where he worked his oppressive top game.
However, Hirota resiliently persevered, as he popped his head out
of guillotine attempts and scrambled to keep the fight standing.
Hirota’s efforts to stifle Kitaoka’s grappling game were more
effective in the second period, as the Gutsman representative
stuffed takedowns and forced stand-ups. There, his punches and
kicks marked up the defending champion. Despite Kitaoka’s best
efforts to bang with Hirota -- an area in which Kitaoka showed
improvement from previous fights -- it still proved difficult for
him to reach the challenger with his wide, lunging punches.

Kitaoka reasserted control in the third round, as he took down
Hirota and grinded on him with punches, rather than setting up
submission attempts. By this time, the champion had grown quite
tired after having so many of his takedowns and submission attempts
rebuffed. The rapidly declining quality of his takedown attempts
allowed Hirota to sprawl and land a barrage of knees to Kitaoka’s
head and face. Bloodied and on auto pilot, Kitaoka tried to fight
through the assault, but after repeated knees and punches, referee
Kenichi Serizawa had seen enough and jumped in to call the bout at
2:50 of the fourth round.

“It was a great fight, wasn’t it?” Hirota said. “I’m really tired,
but it was great. I hope you enjoyed it. This was a fight I just
could not lose.”

In the most unexpected pairing for the featherweight grand prix
final, Michihiro
Omigawa -- who took a contentious decision over Marlon
Sandro earlier in the evening -- met Masanori
Kanehara -- who was eliminated earlier in the evening by
Hatsu
Hioki but continued when Hioki dropped out of the final at the
doctor’s suggestion.

Kanehara rose to the occasion, as he quickly took the fight to
Omigawa, jumped onto the judoka’s back and threatened with chokes
and punches for the entire first round. Kanehara appeared to
capture the second round, as well, as he took side mount and
dropped lunging knees to Omigawa’s head. Omigawa rebounded in the
third frame, when he shut down Kanehara’s takedown attempts, landed
knees to the head and threatened with guillotines. However, it
proved too little, too late.

“I lost to Hioki in the semis, so I didn’t think I deserved to
fight in the finals, but my teammates urged me to continue anyway,”
Kanehara said. “I owe my success to all the people who have helped
and supported me to get this far.”

Meanwhile, Strikeforce veteran Kazuo Misaki
took a questionable technical submission in the first round of his
middleweight contender eliminator bout against Kazuhiro
Nakamura.

Nakamura charged forward and intended to land big punches on his
way to securing the clinch. He landed a few punches and low kicks,
along with two low blows, but Misaki gutted through the fouls and
returned fire with kicks and crisp punches, eventually flooring the
UFC veteran with a flying knee. A dazed Nakamura scrambled to take
down Misaki, but the Grabaka Hitman locked up a guillotine choke in
the process. Referee Yoshinori Umeki jumped in at the 3:03 mark,
without waiting for a Nakamura tapout, and called the fight for
Misaki.

Hornbuckle made good on his promise to spoil Gono’s homecoming, as
he knocked the UFC and Pride Fighting Championships veteran out
cold in the third round. The longer-limbed Hornbuckle won rounds
one and two, as he landed grazing stomps and took mount at the end
of the second period. In the third, Hornbuckle caught a Gono middle
kick and countered immediately with a right high kick. Gono
stiffened and fell into the ropes, out cold at 2:50, prompting
Matsumiya to move in for the save.

Gono was stretchered out several minutes later, and post-event
reports from the hospital claimed the Grabaka fighter had been
diagnosed with a concussion, possible brain hemorrhaging and damage
to his neck from landing awkwardly on the ropes. While Gono will be
kept overnight for observation, he was reported to be alert and
coherent.

Before he advanced to the featherweight grand prix final, Omigawa
posted a controversial decision over Sandro, as he handed the
featherweight King of Pancrase his first loss.

Sandro planted and landed huge punches on the UFC veteran, but
Omigawa hung tough, eating the Brazilian’s best shots and lunging
in to give some of his own. Sandro’s longer reach, power and
greater volume of punches put him ahead on the cards in the minds
of many. Still, Omigawa’s toughness and tenacity at lunging in for
the attack, along with his trip attempts from the clinch, evened
the fight on the scorecards of Serizawa and Kobayashi, who scored
the semi-final a 30-30 draw. Their “must decision” went to Omigawa,
while judge Ohashi ruled the bout 30-29 for Sandro.

Before he withdrew from the final, Hioki took a one-sided decision
over Kanehara, as he bullied the ZST representative on the mat.
Hioki took mount at will and dropped punches that softened Kanehara
for eventual triangle and armbar attempts. To his credit, Kanehara
stayed in the fight, scrambled out of danger and put up a
marginally better fight in the third period, throwing wild punches
on the feet and from inside Hioki’s guard. Judges Matsumiya, Isono
and Ohashi sided with Hioki by 30-27, 29-27 and 29-28 scores.

According to Hioki, he could not continue in the tournament because
of dizziness and a complete loss of strength in his limbs. It was
suspected that he suffered a concussion, and, as a result, would be
taken to the hospital for further evaluation.